


I'm Gonna Stand By You

by Rikaleeta



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Getting Together, Love Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:34:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21965767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikaleeta/pseuds/Rikaleeta
Summary: Hope turns on Lena, who manages to call on Supergirl just in time. When Supergirl sees the lab and who is inside, she knows she and Lena have to talk.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Kudos: 203
Collections: Supergirl Femslash Secret Santa 2019





	I'm Gonna Stand By You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SlytherinWarriorSlayer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinWarriorSlayer/gifts).



> This is late, and I'm so so sorry! I hope you enjoy anyway 😅

When Lena walked into the lab on an otherwise normal Wednesday afternoon, she hardly noticed Hope sitting off to the corner. Hardly noticed their blank smile was a touch… sad, she would say later on, when Nia helped her work through the memories. 

For now, however, she barely paid Hope a glance. Instead, her attention went to the Martian sitting inside the prison she had designed for Sam. Well, Reign. Whichever name she chose to call her by, the fact that she had had to put someone wearing her friend’s face inside the forcefield still left a bitter taste in her mouth. (Eve didn’t count. Eve had betrayed her. Eve was no longer her friend.)

At that current moment, the Martian was still asleep. They wouldn’t need him much longer; just long enough to perfect the Q-Waves. Thankfully, Lena could now Incept the Martian to activate his Q-Waves. The ones she was using weren’t quite perfected, and she didn’t want to harm anyone in effort to make them not harm each other. That would be counter-productive. 

“Hope, could you please wake the Martian?” Lena asked, barely sparing a glance over her shoulder. She didn’t hear so much as a rustle of fabric, but it didn’t worry her. Hope could be silent when they wanted to. However, after nearly a minute passed and he didn’t so much as stir, Lena turned around. Hope was still sitting, and Lena could see the look on their face now.

“You’ve become a hypocrite, Ms. Luthor.” They said. They took a deep breath, though they hadn’t had need for it before they took over Eve’s body. It seemed plain human instinct had taught them about the calming side effects of a full-body sigh. 

“It seems,” they continued, and Lena could hear the note of sadness in it now, “that I will have to take matters into my own hands.” They rose to their feet slowly. Now that they were no longer blocked by the counter between them, Lena could see the pistol in their hands. 

Lena took an automatic step back. “Hope? What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“Like I said, Ms. Luthor. You have become a hypocrite. It’s time for me to take this project into my own hands. Now that I have hands, I can do just that.” They turned the knife over in their fingers. “My first joke. At a time like this. That being said, I have been contemplating this for a while.” 

“Hope, what are you talking about? What do you mean, ‘I’m a hypocrite’?” She held her hands up, trying to slowly approach them so she could take the gun.

That seemed to put Hope on the defensive. They raised the gun, took a step back. Narrowed their eyes. “It means, Ms. Luthor, that you have been committing the very acts you seek to eradicate.”

“What? I don’t-”

“Just yesterday, you lied to Malefic. Is one of your goals not to eliminate lying?” Despite being in the body of a rather small woman, Hope managed to be extremely menacing. The pistol helped. 

“Ok, but Hope, that was so that he would help us. I couldn’t let him hurt someone-”

“You think preventing lying won’t harm people?” Hope initiated the step forward this time. Lena held her ground. Hope wouldn’t actually shoot her, would they? “Tell me, Ms. Luthor. You grew up bisexual in an already abusive home. Are you going to tell me you never lied to protect yourself?”

“But with the program-”

“Your case is in no way isolated. Children are in abusive homes, or conservative homes, or both. They must lie to protect themselves. Your program will rid them of that ability. It will harm them.”

“But my program will also keep those in charge of them from reacting negatively.” Lena managed to make her heated response sound icy at the same time. Like frost creeping over red-hot iron.

“No.” Hope said, as if Lena’s tone didn’t affect them at all. Perhaps it didn’t. Lena had designed them to work around her, after all, and when things weren’t going as she needed to in the privacy of her own lab, she tended to say things she wouldn’t ever say in front of anyone. Hope had needed to be programmed to be able to bear the brunt of harsh words. 

“Your program will merely prevent them from saying these hurtful things. After all, we don’t want to go too far, in your words. Controlling their thoughts is going too far, according to you. But their anger, their hatred, for whatever they perceive their child- or charge, or family member, or whatever- will fester. And they will be able to speak their minds at some point. But only after weeks, months, of festering anger and hatred. You would know all about that, wouldn’t you, Ms. Luthor?”

“What?” 

“That’s what’s happening with your feelings toward Supergirl, is it not? Which actually leads me into my next point. Your intent when you made me was for me to help you harm her.”

Lena stayed silent. Hope plowed on. “You could have revealed her secret to the world. It would have hurt her. Would have hurt her friends, her family. That was your plan, even. Why didn’t you, Ms. Luthor?” Hope paused, but they had to know Lena had no intention of answering- already knew the answer- because the pause was only momentary. “To hurt her worse. So she would feel the sting of the aftermath of a lie.” Another step forward. “Your intention through this whole project is revenge. The desire to hurt her. You, Ms. Luthor, are. A. Hypocrite.”

Finally seeming to reach the end of what they had wanted to say, Hope raised the pistol and levelled it at Lena. She tried to pitch herself to the side, to move too quickly for the barrel to track her, but the bullet still grazed her shoulder. She let out a strangled cry of pain. No one would hear, of course, neither the sound of the gun going off or her scream. Her personal lab was completely soundproofed. 

Lena landed in a heap on the floor, gripping her shoulder. “Hope, stardust!” She called out the kill code she’d put in, just in case of a situation like this. Hope didn’t so much as bat an eye. 

“That phrase was rendered useless when you put me into the body of a human. Another person you’ve hurt, Ms. Luthor.” The gun was aimed at her again, sending her scrambling back. The bullet hit her in the calf this time. Another bitten back, strangled cry. “She’s quite angry, you know.” Hope continued nonchalantly, cocking the gun again. 

Lena glanced around desperately, vision already going fuzzy from the pain and blood loss. But she could power through. She had to. 

There. The watch. It was on the counter next to Hope, where she had left it. Yes, she was still angry with Kara, but it was looking like Kara was her only hope of survival right now. (Hah, Hope. She must have been getting delirious.) 

She struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on the cabinet behind her, and ignored the fire racing up her leg. Hope watched with cold interest, as if they were wondering what Lena possibly thought she could do. The gun stayed leveled at her chest. Her heart, Lena realised. 

Her arms shook with the effort of holding her up. Her right shoulder and leg screamed at her. But still, Lena took a sharp breath and launched herself off the cabinets toward the counter where the watch lay. With a startled sound, Hope dodged to the side and pulled the trigger again. Pain ripped through her side, but Lena managed to grab the watch before she tumbled to the ground.

Hope saw it immediately and stalked toward Lena. Somehow, miraculously, she magaged to open the secret flap and press the button before Hope’s foot came down on her hand. She couldn’t hold back the gritted-teeth scream this time. She definitely heard a couple bones pop. 

Hope turned around again, going to retrieve the gun. “I trust you won’t try that trick again, Ms. Luthor. Besides, you know very well Ms. Danvers is in the middle of an important long-term story. Do you really think she has time for you right now?” They turned around, and Lena’s stomach plummeted when she saw that Hope hadn’t been going after the pistol at all. Her goal had been Lena’s phone. “Especially not after you text her. ‘So sorry about that, Kara.’” Their voice rang out high, a poor mockery of Lena’s, as they typed the words. “‘Just an accidental push. No need to come.’”

“She won’t fall for that.” Lena said, barely keeping her voice steady. “She probably won’t even look at her phone before she gets here.”

“Won’t she, though?” Hope said, fake sympathy dripping from them. “Ms. Danvers trusts you implicitly. If you say it was just an accident, well. She has no reason not to believe you. As far as she knows, you haven’t lied to her since you told her you had no more Kryptonite.”

Lena had the horrible, sickening feeling she was right. Shouldn’t Kara be here by now? How long had it been since she had pressed the button? A minute? Two? Probably less, but every second felt horribly drawn out. Still, she should be here by now, it she was coming. 

The gun was pointed at her again. Lena closed her eyes. “It was lovely knowing you, Ms. Luthor. But I can handle the project from here.” Lena squeezed her eyes shut so she didn’t have to watch Hope pull the trigger.

With the sort of timing Lena thought only happened in books and movies, there was a metal-on-metal screeching noise and a sound like wooshing air. Lena dared to open her eyes and saw Supergirl a few feet away from where Hope had been standing. Hope was in a body lock and struggling profusely. The gun laid on the ground at Supergirl’s foot with a squish mark that was definitely the shape of Kara’s boot. 

“How did Eve get into your lab?” She asked, not even breaking a sweat, as if there wasn’t a struggling person-shaped AI in her arms. Perks of super strength, Lena supposed.

“Oh ho ho, you’re behind.” Hope smiled venomously, and Lena felt her stomach sink like a stone. She shouldn’t care that Kara was about to find out about her project, other than the fact that Kara may stop her, but… here she was. Not wanting Kara to know. Not wanting Kara to know Lena had lied to her.

“My name is Hope. We have a lot to talk about, Supergirl.” There was a beeping noise, and Lena realised Hope still had the remote that turned the cloaking on and off on her… her prison, there was no other word for it. The cloaking had been raised during Hope and Lena’s struggle, but Lena was treated to the view of Kara’s face turning ashen as Malefic came into view, smiling and looking around a bit deliriously. (Lena hadn’t quite gotten the inception right. He hadn’t been quite right since Lena had tried it.)

Kara licked her lips, and Lena felt her stomach plutting. She wanted to cry. Was this how Kara had felt when she had thought for those silent moments that Lena was going to hate her?

“I think,” Kara said shakily, “that we need to talk.” 

No, Lena decided, this probably isn’t how she felt. Because this was all Lena’s fault. Whatever trust she lost was her fault. Sure, Kara should have told her sooner, but she couldn’t help that she was an alien. She couldn’t even help that she was Supergirl. Her debut was because her big sister was in trouble. 

But this? Lena had designed her own downfall. She had convinced herself that she didn’t actually care about Supergirl, about Kara, about what she thought, but she was rapidly finding out that she did. 

****  
Kara entered the clinic at the DEO headquarters holding two mugs. She passed one to Lena, because of course she did. Lena should probably be a prisoner for what she had been researching, but here Kara was, giving her coffee. 

“Hope told me about the project.” Kara said softly. She shifted her cape to the side so she could sit on the gurney next to the one that Lena sat on, knees against her chest and back against the headboard. 

“I’m sorry.” Lena’s head jerked up to look at Kara. She was studying the contents of her mug- hot chocolate, most likely- and chewing her lip. Her eyebrows were scrunched up, like they always were when Kara was upset. Lena stared at her, slack-jawed, for what felt like several minutes but was probably only a few seconds.

“What?” Lena finally managed to croak. She knew Kara didn’t like to see the bad in people, but blaming herself for this situation was… a lot, even for Kara.

“I knew you had trouble trusting people pretty soon after I met you. And still, you let me in. Trusted me. And I betrayed your trust.” She gripped the mug hard enough that a crack spiderwebbed across the surface. Lena found her legs in time to take it from her before she could break the mug. She regretted it when fire licked at her wounds, raced up her leg, but at least she had saved Kara’s hot chocolate. And the DEO’s mug, she supposed. As it was, the crack was only surface level, so the contents weren’t coming out. “I should have told you sooner, about me being Supergirl. I’m sorry.” 

“Kara-”

“No, Lena, please. I’m not finished.” Kara took a shuddering breath, clenching her hands together in her lap. “I betrayed you and your trust as Supergirl, and then I hid behind my identity as Kara so I didn’t have to face the consequences. And then I kept hiding, and I’m- I’m just-” She broke off, and Lena realised she was crying. Before she could think about it too much, she was off her cot and sitting next to Kara on hers. She ignored the pain in her leg. This was too important.

“Kara, are you referring to the Kryptonite incedent?” Kara nodded miserably, seemingly trying to control her breathing so she could stop crying. “Kara, I forgave you a long time ago for that. I was hurt, but I wasn’t being entirely honest either. And we both said a lot of things we shouldn’t have. But I’m not angry at you for it anymore.” 

Kara sniffled. “Lena, you know that project… it was bad, right? Controlling people like that… I know you were trying to help, but…”

“I know.” Lena sighed. “Hope explained it quite well.” She paused nervously, biting her lip and wondering if she was actually brave enough to ask what she wanted to. Finally, Lena took a deep breath. “Kara, can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” Kara told her vehemently.

“Why were you so scared to tell me that you were Supergirl?” Kara stiffened in her arms. Lena plowed ahead; there was no turning back now, anyway. “Were you afraid I would hurt you?”

Kara sighed, pulling out of her arm to fiddle with her fingers. “Yes and no.” Lena flinched a bit, and Kara hurried on. “Not physically, I mean! I was just… I was so worried you would hate me. The longer it took to tell you, the more scared I got. I was scared you would hate me for lying, for hiding it from you for so long. And I wasn’t lying to myself all the way, I mean everyone Cl- Kal-El is close to seems to end up in Superman trouble. But mostly… I was terrified. I didn’t want you to hate me, Lena, I love you too much for that.” 

The words I love you hit Lena like a spear to the chest. It took her a moment to sort through the feelings that reawakened. To beat down the sudden hope that sprang back up with the fact that there was no way Kara had meant it romantically. Even though they had never said it to each other and this was an extremely emotionally charged moment for a platonic I-love-you. 

Instead, she bent down to rest her arms in her lap so she could catch Kara’s gaze. Pain seared her shoulder wound, and Alex would definitely kill her if she had ripped the stitches, but she didn’t care right now. Right now, the only important thing was reassuring the woman she had been in love with for years. The oblivious woman who never realised how much Lena loved her, how deeply. The woman who doesn’t love you that way, a nasty voice reminded her harshly. “Kara, I could never hate you. Even when I was angry, I didn’t hate you. No matter how much I tried to convince myself I did.” 

Kara smiled softly, a gentle, teary thing. “I don’t hate you either, Lena. I could never.” 

The words had more impact than Lena had expected, especially since they were in the wake of an I-love-you. She felt tears gathering in her eyes. Kara’s eyes widened. “Woah, Lena, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry!” 

Lena held up a hand to stop Kara’s worried rumbling. Tears flowing freely down her face, and Kara’s own hands fluttered as if she wanted to wipe the tears or gather Lena into her arms but wasn’t sure what touching she was allowed to do. Finally, she opted for a hand slid around Lena’s shoulder and soothing rubbing on the arm furthest from Kara. It seemed Kara had forgotten about the bullet wound that was now pressed against her side, but Lena couldn’t bring herself to point it out. Even if it hurt. Being held like this felt too nice to separate for such a trivial reason.

“It’s just… part of the reason I was so angry about finding out was that I didn’t find out from you.” 

Horror overtook Kara’s face. “You figured it out? That explains why Hope said the project had been going on since before I told you… oh, is it that obvious? Who else could figure-” 

Kara and Lena were both shocked by the sound of Lena’s tearful laughter ringing out. “Kara, I didn’t figure it out. Though, to be fair, your disguise is a pair of magic glasses.” 

Kara arched an eyebrow. “Magic?”

“You take off your glasses and your suit magically appears.”

“Oh! Brainy designed that. Some fancy future tech.” Kara paused and licked her lips. “Lena, if you didn’t figure it out, and I wasn’t the first one who told you, who was?”

Lena averted her gaze. She had been hoping to avoid this part. “Lex.” She said quietly.

Kara stiffened. “Oh.”

Lena nodded. “Yeah. He… made it seem like it was all some joke to you. That you were all laughing behind my back. Lena swallowed thickly. “Like you all secretly hated me.”

Kara shot up at that, nearly smacking Lena in the nose, to cup her face firmly in her hands. “Lena. We were not laughing at you. And I promise, I could never, ever, ever hate you. I-” she broke off nervously, her forefingers rubbing Lena’s hair. Lena couldn’t tell if it was nervous fidgeting or if it was supposed to be soothing for Lena. It felt nice, whatever it was. The soothing would have worked a lot better if Kara hadn’t suddenly become extremely interested in the wall behind Lena. She was trembling, ever-so-slightly. Lena became very worried, very fast.

“Are you alright, Kara?” She asked, perhaps a little desperately.

“Just tell her already, Kara!” Lena’s head jerked to the door, where Alex was being dragged away by a frantically whispering Nia. “I’ve been watching you pine for three god damn years!” 

Lena turned her gaze back to Kara, who had nearly turned the same shade of scarlet as her former skirt. The shaking was more pronounced, and tears were gathering in her eyes again. 

“Woah, Kara, what’s going on? Are you ok?” Kara nodded desperately, and took a shuddering breath.

“I can’t hate you, Lena.” Another pause, another deep breath. “I can’t hate you because I love you.” 

Lena cupped her face gently, using her thumb to gently swipe away her tears before gathering Kara back into her arms so she could hold her. “I know, Kara. You just told me that.” 

“N-no, not like that.” Kara tried to pull back, but Lena held fast. She knew Kara could easily break her grip with just her pinkie, but she held on anyway. She always wanted their hugs to last just a moment longer. To keep holding Kara and being held by her for just a few more precious seconds. 

Still, Kara gave up when she felt Lena’s resistance. “I mean… I mean that I’m in love with you.” She felt Kara’s grip tighted just a bit. “A-and it’s totally fine if you don’t feel the same, I just felt bad keeping it from you, like you should probably be warned if your best friend is in love with you, you know?” Kara’s voice broke over the words best friend, like it was cracking over a sob. It took Lena a startled moment for her brain to try to catch up and realise she was crying. 

She couldn’t even keep up as Kara continued talking, because it felt like her world was falling down around her. Or maybe it was that the world she had so desperately wanted was finally letting itself be built up, despite nearly three years of her beating it down every time it showed a single hopeful brick to her subconscious. Maybe the world she thought she was going to have to settle for was falling to make way for the one she had craved. Either way, it was changing, in the best possible way, and Lena had to mentally shake herself so she could stop Kara’s rambling.

Her hands moved to tangle in Kara’s hair, carefully not moving her right bicep so it didn’t twinge, so she could gently guide Kara’s face away from her shoulder so she could look her in the eyes. It gave her the odd appearance of her right bicep being pressed flush against her side while her forearms reached out as far as they could. She probably looked like a child imitating a T-Rex, but she didn’t care. Kara broke off in the middle of a sentence in surprise. “I love you too, Kara.” SHe moved forward, quickly before she could lose her nerve, to gently put her lips against Kara’s. 

“Fucking finally!” It was Alex’s voice again, along with the frustrated voices of Nia and Kelly admonishing her for giving away their oh-so-stealthy eavesdropping position two feet to the left of the door. Lena ignored them in favor of focusing on what was quite possibly the best kiss of her life.

It wasn’t that Kara was a great kisser. She was kind of sloppy, actually. But it came with three years worth of release; even dating James had just been a distraction, and the only thing that would have been able to relieve the tension in her body was this; this face cupped in her hands, these lips against hers. They tasted like the salt of the tears running down both their faces, and they were sweet like the snacks Kara liked to graze on while she worked. There was the underlying taste of something unfamiliar, something Lena could only describe as sunlight, which made sense since she was literally kissing Supergirl.

They broke apart, and Lena let loose a little laugh-sob at Kara’s wobbly smile. This time, Kara leaned in, and the kiss was shorter. “Did you know,” Lena said, in a teasing tone thick with tears, “that you’re a terrible kisser?” 

Kara gave her a mock-offended look. “Rude! It’s not like I got much practice.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Really now? I find that hard to believe. I’m sure people have been lining up to get a chance to kiss you since you got here.”

Kara laughed ruefully. “Not really. In middle and high school, I was kind of the odd duck. Trying to get used to Earth, y’know. Which was weird because Krypton didn’t even have ducks. And when I did kiss a guy, I broke his nose or chipped his tooth or otherwise hurt him by accident.”

“Your kiss may have been sloppy, but it certainly wasn’t painful.” Lena teased. “Except for, you know, the three year leadup.” 

“Well, what can I say.” Kara placed a gentle kiss on Lena’s nose. “You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever kissed.” 

“Wow, I’m flattered. I’m stronger than all of five people.”

“Ouch!” Kara exclaimed. She had stopped crying, though. Lena realised that she had, too. 

“Sorry, six. I didn’t count Mon-El.” Lena remarked cynically.

Kara responded with a laugh. “Wow, Lena, I didn’t really take you as the jealous type.” She pressed another kiss to Lena’s lips, and Lena thought she must have purposefully been making it sloppier as revenge. Lena rolled her eyes and kissed her back. She wasn’t going to let pettiness ruin the enjoyment of the kisses.

Kara sighed, a happy one, and pressed her forehead to Lena’s. “We have a lot to talk about, Lena.” 

“Yeah, I know.” She said. “We’ll get through it, though, right?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Kara said, with steel in her voice. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“So.” Lena said, with a teasing lilt that failed to cover her curiosity. “You said you’ve been in love with me for three years.” 

“Yeah?” Lena smirked at Kara’s response. Kara hadn’t said that, and Kara seemed to realise that a minute too late because she blushed again. “I didn’t realise it for a while, but yeah. I definitely started crushing on you when you basically narrated my life experience the first time we met.” 

A dusting of pink settled on Lena’s cheeks, and she chuckled, but forged ahead. “So, am I to understand that you were in love with me while you were dating Mon-El?” 

Kara looked away. “I… Did a lot of things I regret when I was trying not to be in love with you. Trying to force myself to move on with someone else was one of them.” 

“Yeah, but with Mon-El?” Lena would never have said anything if she thought her friend had actually cared for him, but the guy had been an ass. 

Kara looked ashamed. “It was an awful combination of trying to move on and him lying to me so I thought he was a little less of an ass and me thinking he understood losing an entire planet and… yeah, I was a little blind. But, looking back, I know that I didn’t ever actually love him.” She smiled gently. “You’ve been the only one for me since the first time I ever laid eyes on you, Lena.”

Lena laughed. “Same here. I knew I was gone the second you walked into my office.”

Kara chuckled with her, wrapping her arms around Lena so they could both lie down together on the gurney. “I love you, Lena.” There was a firey pinch on her bullet wounds, but they went away after they got settled.

“I love you too, Kara.”

They laid like that for a few minutes, Kara’s eyes starting to drift shut and Lena not far behind her.

“Hold on.” She said suddenly. “Is Clark Kent Superman?” 

Kara immediately started laughing, joined by the not-so-inconspicuous voices in the hall. “You’re too smart for your own good, Lena.” 

Lena rolled her eyes. “Only you could make ‘stop figuring out Superheroes’ identities’ sound vaguely like a compliment.” She grumbled. Kara gave a lopsided grin and kissed it away. Lena rolled her eyes and kissed her back. 

“We really do have to work on your kissing, Kara.” She teased. Kara stuck her tongue out at her. Both of them laughed, and kissed again.


End file.
